Day 2: The Chocolate Train

June 5, 2013

After 8 hours of much needed sleep, we woke up to a beautiful view and a common Germanic breakfast. Breakfasts in Germany, Austria and the Switzerland area are not like ours in America. Instead of having french toast, eggs, sausage, or pastries, they typically have sliced bread (typically hard, not soft like our Butternut) with marmalade (jelly), ham and cheese (the very strong mountain cheese), and granola and yogurt. Often the youth hostels serve corn flakes, but I think this is a feature meant to serve the tourists. This is the same type of breakfast Amanda usually ate when she stayed in Austria last year.

Germanic Breakfast from the Hostel

The view across the lake this morning

After breakfast, we checked out, walked to the train station, stored our luggage in a locker and climbed aboard The Chocolate Train. The train would give us a full day excursion (9am-5pm) into the Alps for beautiful scenery, a cheese making demonstration, a tour of castle and a tour of the Nestle chocolate factory. We were served hot chocolate, a chocolate croissant, and a sample of Cailler chocolate (the locally made Swiss chocolate) on the train.

Hot Chocolate, Chocolate Crossiant and Chocolate sample on the Chocolate 

We stopped in Gruyeres, Switzerland to see a demonstration of how they make their famous cheese. We were given a sample and we decided that the cheese is too strong for our taste.

We passed a campground on the way to the cheese factory

Large vats that they stir the cheese components in

How the store the cheese and let it age

If we were Swiss...

After finishing the cheese demonstration, we were taken by bus up the hill to the old village of Gruyeres where we were able to take in breathtaking views and tour the Gruyeres Castle, built in 1270. It was similar to the Chillon Castle from yesterday, but it was not as large and was furnished with furniture from the 1800s.

The castle we toured. Taken from the train. 

Gruyeres Old Village

Village Steeple with the Alps as a backdrop (My favorite picture so far)

Us with the village church and Alps in background

Inside the castle courtyard. Looks just like the movies!

Both this castle and the castle yesterday were built on rocks that you can see throughout the castle. 

A ladies sitting room in the castle decked out with 1800s furniture

The castle gardens

The knight's room in the castle. Check out the huge fireplace!

I love these blue flowers! They make up fields here and are beautiful!

Clayton taking a power nap before getting back on the bus. 

In Swiss tradition, their cows wear bells when in the field grazing. We saw in the old village that they also put bells on their sheep sometimes.

After our free time in the Gruyeres village, we traveled by bus to Broc, Switzerland to tour the Nestle factory where the local Cailler chocolate is made. This tour given was excellent! We walked through intricate sets that described the history of chocolate and of the factory. The Aztecs were the first ones to have chocolate and it was thought a very strong drink and therefore was not given to women and children. Eventually the Spanish conqueror Cortez brought the beans to Europe. In Europe it was still considered a delicacy and one would need a week’s wage to buy a pound of it. It was also considered a sensual item and lovers often ate it before and after their lovemaking. We enjoyed learning those historical fun facts about chocolate, but perhaps the best part of the tour (at least it was Amanda’s favorite part) was the chocolate tasting room. Yes a whole room with all different kinds of chocolates that you could sit in and taste as long as you want!

The Cailler Factory

All the reasons chocolate is good for you (You may have to zoom in)

A video of the vault where the Nestle recipe is kept

The Chocolate Tasting Room!

Clayton being silly

After the chocolate tour, we loaded the train and made our way back through the beautiful mountains to Montreux ending our Chocolate Train tour. We then hopped on a couple more trains and made the 2 ½ hour journey back to Zurich. We arrived at 8:30pm in Zurich, checked into our hotel, ate supper, and are about to hit the sack. We are still not quite caught up on sleep. Tomorrow, we will conclude our time in Switzerland by sightseeing in Zurich and then make our way to Lindau, Germany in the evening. It has been a lovely day in Switzerland! Goodnight all!